"I'll be home in about ten minutes, so just pull the casserole dish out of the oven and get everything ready." Tony said into the phone.
Gibbs rolled his eyes "Alright Tony – Just hurry up and get home." Gibbs replied as he hung up while walking into the kitchen – he still had a hard time with phone etiquette but he knew that Tony would understand the meaning behind his words. Gibbs carefully pulled the casserole dish out of the oven and set it on the glass top of the stove, then quickly went around to set the table and get their drinks prepared, he even lit up a few candles, smiling at the minor romances he was trying to insinuate into their relationship.
Gibbs dimmed the lights in the dining room and then sat down at the table, spinning his glass of bourbon around in his fingertips as he waited for Tony to show up. Gibbs watched as the minutes on the clock ticked by slowly, he anxiously tapped his fingers against the table top, it was already well past ten minutes and Tony hadn't shown up yet.
Gibbs grabbed his cellphone off the counter, dialing Tony's number as he poked at the casserole which was now tepid. "You've reached Steven Gray, sorry I couldn't come to the phone right now. Leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!" came Tony's voicemail message. Gibbs growled as he slapped the cellphone shut, looking around the kitchen angrily "Damn it!" Gibbs ground out through clenched teeth as he put the cellphone back down on the countertop.
"Fine time to disobey Rule Three, Tony!" Gibbs grumped as he sat on top of the counter, staring at the digit clock on the stove. The minutes continuing to tick by mockingly as Gibbs glared at the numbers and continued both checking his phone and dialing Tony's number every few minutes, but something in his gut told him that Tony wasn't going to answer and was now pulling him in another direction.
Gibbs collected his keys, wallet, cellphone and the GPS locator, looking at the device sadly as he headed outside. Gibbs glanced around the street briefly and sighed as he started the short walk towards where the PX was located, thankfully it was only a couple of blocks from the house and not on the other side of the base.
Gibbs looked around the barren parking lot, his heart sinking to his feet as he saw what was left of several grocery bags scattered across the parking lot ground and his and Tony's SUV sitting only a few feet away "No… No! NO DAMN IT!" Gibbs shouted as he ran full-speed over to the groceries, looking for anything that would help him.
Gibbs sunk to his knees as he brought the bag he knew to be Tony's purchases to his chest, inhaling shakily as he stared at the concrete beneath him "Damn it Anthony… Damn it to hell!" Gibbs said as his eyes locked onto the small pool of dried blood. Gibbs quickly pulled the GPS locator out and turned it on, hoping beyond hope that Tony activated the transmission and this nightmare would be over quickly.
Gibbs stared blankly at the locator, 'Target Unavailable' blinking back at him incessantly. Gibbs shook his head as he placed the locator back into his pocket and laid his forehead against his bent knees to regain some sort of composure before he called Hetty to inform her of the situation.
"Agent Gibbs, this better be good." Hetty said as soon as Gibbs was able to contain the rage and the sudden urge to cry his eyes out and call the woman who ran the LA Office.
Gibbs inhaled shakily as he stood up from the ground "Tony's been taken Hetty… He was at the PX – The car is here, the groceries are here… He's gone." Gibbs said quietly, leaning his forehead against the cool steel of the SUV, his voice hitching as he began explaining what he knew so far about Tony's disappearance.
"I'll have Sam and Callen drive out to you. Keep the GPS system on, Agent Gibbs and just hope that wherever Tony is, he can activate it." Hetty said as she hung up the phone and set out to call her two best agents to send them down to San Diego.
Two hours later, Gibbs was sitting on the bumper of the SUV that was still in the PX parking lot when Sam and Callen pulled up in the black Challenger and joined Gibbs at the back of the SUV "Any changes?" Sam asked as he looked over at the older man.
Gibbs shook his head, cradling the GPS locator in his hands like it would break if he even moved it an inch "No, nothing yet…" Gibbs said quietly as he blinked back the tears that had quickly formed in his eyes.
Callen set his hand on Gibbs' shoulder and squeezed firmly "We'll find him. There aren't any other options but finding him." Callen said confidently as he stood up "I'm going to go inside and get the security footage – Send that off to Eric and see if we can't speed up the process." Callen said as he headed towards the PX and disappeared inside.
Sam nodded as he also stood up "Why don't you head home? Try and get some sleep… Callen and I will process everything here." Sam said as he looked around the scene slowly, one of his eyebrows raising upward.
Gibbs sighed as he got up "I'm going to drive the SUV back… Call me if there's anything." Gibbs said as he got into the SUV and peeled out of the parking lot, trying his hardest to keep his gut from completely twisting up into an impenetrable knot as the worry for Tony continued to increase.
When Gibbs got home, he dropped all of his things on the table just inside of the door and looked around the empty house; everything felt like it was ten degrees colder without Tony being there, and it even felt dull and unlived in without the younger man's laughter, or constant talking. Gibbs felt the change in the air of the house as if it were something palpable as he looked towards the piano that he and Tony had enjoyed several times since he'd gotten it for Tony.
Gibbs shook his head as he headed up the stairs and into the master bedroom, lying on Tony's side of the bed and turning his head into Tony's pillow, inhaling the spicy scent that was still so deeply ingrained in the fabric of the cloud-like pillow. A strangled sob ripped out of Gibbs' throat as he clenched around the pillow, letting the emotional turmoil take ahold of him and lull him to sleep as he held Tony's pillow close to his body.
After just lying in bed for several hours, staring blankly at the wall, Gibbs finally rolled off the bed and headed downstairs to join the two LA agents who had taken over the living room for their investigation.
"Your next door neighbor came by…" Callen said upon seeing the older man come down the stairs.
Gibbs grunted disdainfully as he walked past Callen and headed straight towards the kitchen, pouring a large mug of coffee "She's a nosy busy body – You tell her anything?" Gibbs grumbled as he turned back to Callen.
Callen shook his head slowly "No, she doesn't need to know what's going on – We just said that we were friends who were visiting…" Callen said, shrugging as he sat down on the couch and began clicking away at the laptop that was connected to the TV, "The security footage didn't show much…" Callen added as he pressed play on the footage.
Gibbs sat down on the couch and stared at the screen, his face going a sickly pale color as he watched Tony collapse and be carried off into the back of a black SUV "You run the plates? Get facial recognition on those two?" Gibbs asked, pointing towards the two suspects on the screen.
Sam nodded as he pulled up the information on a second laptop "SUV is registered to a Lt. Col. Terry Anderson, and that is the man in the video. The female is Alexis Campbell, she's a civilian veterinarian technician here on the base, no relation to any active service member." Sam reported as he looked between his partner and Gibbs.
Gibbs shook his head, setting his coffee cup down on the table as he rubbed at his head "Lexi was a friend of Tony's… Never met Anderson before though." Gibbs said glumly as he laid back in the corner of the couch, staring up at the ceiling as he blew out a breath of frustration.
Gibbs' worry continued growing, and it was evident on his face, as was the exhaustion that he felt in every limb; he'd spent more time watching the locator than he did sleeping last night, and nothing had changed since he turned it on, and that was nearly twelve hours ago. Sleeping was hardly an option with Tony out there somewhere, he just hoped that the younger man was keeping strong through all of this and relying on his training more than anything at this point.
Sam and Callen shared an odd look as they watched a myriad of emotions cross Gibbs' face, "Is there anything we can do?" Callen asked sympathetically, rubbing the back of his neck slightly.
Gibbs shook his head "Not unless you can find Tony sooner…" Gibbs said as he pushed up from the couch, collected his coffee mug and headed out to the backyard, staring down at the lush green grass as he thought about Tony and the many nights they'd spent just sitting on the back porch and talking about anything and everything that they could think of, even if Gibbs didn't talk much, he did enjoy just listening to Tony talk and lay against him as they snuggled on the hammock.
As the hours continued to tick by, Gibbs grew angrier about the fact that they hadn't been able to locate Tony and that Tony hadn't activated the GPS system yet. They were drawing closer to the Three Day mark of Tony being kidnapped, and Gibbs was equally worried and pissed off about the circumstances that they were currently in.
The GPS locator had remained on throughout the entire time, and constantly displayed 'Target Unavailable' and that made Gibbs' stomach sink even further every time he looked at it, but he also couldn't seem to stop looking at it to see if anything had changed. Often times though, he just wanted to throw the GPS across the room and watch the small electronic device burst into several pieces, but he knew that wouldn't help anyone at this point.
Gibbs sighed as he sat at the piano, plucking at the ivory keys and staring at the GPS tracker, "Come on Tony… Come on." Gibbs whispered hoarsely, swiping at his eyes tiredly – He hadn't slept since that first night and he was definitely feeling the exhaustion, but knew he wouldn't sleep until he had Tony back safely.
When the GPS started beeping erratically, Gibbs' heart nearly jumped out of his throat when the location came up "HE ACTIVATED IT!" Gibbs shouted, pushing away from the piano and bolting towards the living room, "He's still alive!" Gibbs said, relief flooding him as he handed Callen the GPS locator.
Callen took over the locator and raised his eyebrow "That's about a three hour drive from here – We need to go, like now." Callen said as he headed for the door, Sam and Gibbs hot on his trail as the three men left the house and got into the challenger.
Gibbs sat in the passenger seat of the challenger, staring blankly out of the window as he thought about Tony and all that the younger man would have endured during the three days that he had been missing. And as much as he didn't want to, whenever Gibbs would close his eyes, all he could see was Tony lying on the side of the road, beaten and broken, instead of the victims that he'd seen in the past.
As they continued driving closer to Tony's location, Gibbs stomach continued churning and twisting into further knots. Gibbs wasn't any less worried about Tony, but now that they knew where he was, the worry had transformed to how bad off Tony would be and the recovery that would come after.
The ride to the desert where Tony was being held seemed to take much longer than the three hours that it was, and Gibbs was growing more and more impatient as they got closer to the location. All of Gibbs' thoughts continued to circle around Tony, nothing else at that point mattered anymore, and he just wanted Tony back in his arms and safe from harm's way.
Gibbs stared at the worn down warehouse, there wasn't any sign that would lead him to where Tony was, and there definitely wasn't even a sign of life anywhere around the rock quarry. Sam, Callen and Gibbs had searched the entire area where Tony's locator beacon was blinking, but they'd come up empty and the ground was rock solid – literally – so they knew that he wasn't buried underground.
Gibbs took slow steps towards the warehouse, mentally crossing every finger and toe as he pushed open the steel door and looked around, taking the time to adjust to the new level of low-light as he continued walking into the empty warehouse. Gibbs' legs felt like they would fall out from underneath him because of how shaky they were when he came upon the old lift.
Gibbs reached for his cellphone, depressing the walkie-talkie button "I think I've found something – Get EMS ready…" Gibbs said as he climbed onto the lift and started the downward descend to the lower level of the warehouse.
Gibbs shuddered when the cold and damp of the cellar hit him as the lift stopped on the level, he pulled out his flashlight and shone it around the dark hallway. Gibbs froze in his tracks as his ears were assaulted with the sounds of screaming that echoed from the steel door at the end of the hall, the only relief was that it wasn't Tony screaming, but that of a female and he could tell from the slightly tinny sound that it had to be a recording rather than another victim.
Gibbs wrapped his hand around the metal knob, inhaling deeply as he pushed open the door slowly, shining his flashlight around each corner of the room until the beam centered on Tony's body. Tony was curled up around his own body, hiding his face from the light and shivering viciously, his complexion was a sickly gray color and the fine sheen of sweat that dotted his forehead had Gibbs' heart both breaking and soaring with joy that the younger man was still alive.
Gibbs dropped the flashlight and was at Tony's side within a half a second "Tony… Tony its okay, I'm here now…" Gibbs said soothingly as he reached forward hesitantly, stroking his finger across Tony's wounded cheek gently. Gibbs' heart continued to break as Tony flinched away from his touch "Its okay Tony, it's all going to be okay." Gibbs whispered repeatedly as he pulled his lock-pick set out of his pocket, making quick work of the old fashioned shackle cuffs on Tony's wrists.
Tony let out a shuddering sob as his wrists were released, his entire body going into deeper tremors as he clutched at his stomach, screaming out in pure agony as the pain of everything overwhelmed him. Gibbs finally let his own emotions take over as he sobbed alongside Tony, curling up protectively around Tony and gently rocking the younger man's body to soothe away his pains, "I'm here now. I've got you Tony and I won't let anyone hurt you anymore… I promise." Gibbs whispered against Tony's forehead, placing feather-light kisses against the cold skin of the younger man's head.
Tony clutched onto Gibbs' shirt tightly, his heartbreaking sobs slowly turning into short hiccupped sobs "This is real?" Tony whispered hoarsely, coughing viciously against Gibbs' chest.
Gibbs nodded as he rubbed soothingly up and down Tony's back "Yeah this is real. I'm really here Tony." Gibbs assured the younger man, pressing a firm kiss to the younger man's forehead
Tony finally opened his eyes, looking up at Gibbs with a haunted look in his eyes "Wanna go home… Please… Just take me home…" Tony cried out, burying his head against Gibbs' chest as the shaking grew more vicious with each sob that Tony let out.
Unfortunately Gibbs knew he couldn't just take Tony home, and Tony wouldn't let anyone touch him except for Gibbs when the paramedics came down to try and help the younger man, so Gibbs was forced to administer a sedative to Tony, and he was both grateful and upset that he had to do it, because he knew how much Tony hated any sort of drugs in his system, but knew that the only way to save Tony's life was to get him to a hospital and the sooner the better.
I'd like to know what everyone thinks about the story, so leave a review for me! Thanks in advance!